Archive | September, 2008
The Last of the Todas
Years of travel have made me long for exotic spots, places at the edge of the wilderness, where one might find a few creature comforts along with a chance to discover something new about human nature. Can such longings ever be satisfied? I found the answer recently, on a trip to the Nilgiri Mountains of [...]
Continue reading...The DISNEY of India
30. September 2008
Although the comics and the magazines found a following among Indian children, the books authored by Indians took longer to find acceptance. Most children were by then so totally hooked on the wonderfully limited world of Enid Blyton that it was impossible to wean them away. And so we continued to pay homage at the [...]
Continue reading...The Yoga Dancer of Calcutta
28. September 2008
It’s a lazy late-winter morning, but the second floor of Indira cinema in Bhowanipore is a whirl of frenetic feet. “Taka, dimi, taka dimi…. Hold it, I want more energy and power in the steps and movement…. We are not merely playing Lord Krishna here, we are becoming the Lord himself,” Pandit Chitresh Das bellows [...]
Continue reading...Natural Viagra – When the Bamboo Flowers!
28. September 2008
It can tweak the fertility of rats, believe many in Mizoram. Now nutrient-rich bamboo seeds are going straight from the jungle to the Mizo menu and even the bedroom! In Mizoram, bamboo seeds that appear after a riotous flowering of the tall grass every 50 years are considered a harbinger of famine or mautam in the [...]
Continue reading...Learning Conservation from the Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
26. September 2008
Arunachal Pradesh, a mysterious, magical and mystical land tucked away in the north eastern tip of India is one of the most compelling holiday destinations in India. Arunachal has 26 major tribes and many sub-tribes living in 3649 scattered villages. Although a number of tribal groups constitue the total population, the density of population is very [...]
Continue reading...Wikigenea
26. September 2008
Naadi Shashtra or Palm leaf Astrology is an ancient Indian method of recording data. It is believed that by reading through the writings on these leaves one can learn about one’s past, identify the present and predict the future. It is said that thousands of years ago, the great sages of India had the power to [...]
Continue reading...Discovering Slow Food in India
25. September 2008
No time-saving machines; no labor-saving gizmos; no measuring cups and spoons; no fancy ovens; no cuisinarts; no blenders; no recipe books—apart from carefully handwritten slender, little notebook of recipes, Oriental and Occidental, appreciatively learned from visiting neighbors or friends; no cans; no frozen foods; no microwavables. No this and no that! How, then, could so much [...]
Continue reading...Irresponsible tourism in Paradise
22. September 2008
This is what the western media says: “India has always been a difficult place to do business – excessive bureaucracy, endemic corruption and poor infrastructure are the most common problems – but now it seems Hindu gods must be added to the list. Plans for what would have been India’s first international ski resort in the [...]
Continue reading...Selling Yoga to India
21. September 2008
Whatever might be said of the yoga master Swami Ramdev, one cannot accuse him of being dull. Clad from head to foot in orange robes, his early morning television show pulls in 20 million viewers in India alone, and there are the usual video and summer camp spin-offs, as well as the more unusual ones, [...]
Continue reading...The Jazz, Rock & Blues Greats of India
19. September 2008
Pam Crain The nicest thing about Crain is her sincerity. Although she keeps travelling — her daughter has moved to the UK and her mother lives in Las Vegas – Crain returns to the city of her birth,Calcutta,India, where she feels her roots are. “I chat with them on the Internet. They seem to be quite scared. Here, I [...]
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30. September 2008
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